Apparatus for submarines.



R. A, FESSENDEN. APPARATUS FOR SUBMARINES.

APPLlCATlON. EILEIYNOV. 30. I917.

Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

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REGINALD A..FESSEND EN, OF BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS For, sunmmmns.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 14., 1919.

Application filed November 30, 1917. Serial No. 204,564.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, REGINALD A. Fr s- SENDEN, Of Brookline, in thecounty of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the UnitedStates, have 1nvented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus forSubmarine and other Anaeroergic Operatlons, ofwhich the following is aspecification.

The invention has for its object an increased efficiency of operation ofsubmarine, torpedoes and other apparatus, prnnarily for military butalso for commerc al purposes, for example to enable submarine merchantvessels to operate between the north shore of Russia and the North Seaand in Hudson Bay and from to Europe, or for railway operation throughlon tunnels. 4

pellers tric-drive method, well known in the art drawing illustrates,

e accompanying suitable methods diagrammatically and a description ofwhich as applied to the U. S. collier Jupiterfwill be found in theJournal of the American Society of Ncwal Engineers for August, 1912.

14 is the admission receiver, 15, 15 the exhaust receivers and 18, 18the exhaust pipes.

In operation air or oxygen or a mixture of air and oxygen is stored inthe air bottles 20, 20. Two sets of bottles are shown, one set to feedeach one of the engines, and the operation of ea set is identical. A isa pipe which connects the bottles 20 with the pipe 22 by means of thevalve 44 and with the coils 16 by means of the valve 43.

Valves '0 connect each bottle with the pipe A and preferably the bottlesareemptied one at a time and after each bottle is emptied its valve'o isclosed and the valve 1; of a full bottle is opened. These bottles 20 arealso used when emptied to receive Japan and Alaska out the inVen-' andstore the exhaust gases. For this purpose a pipe B is provided which isalso connected with the bottles 20, 20 by valves cc, w. The pipe Bconnects with the ex haust compressor 28 and it is best made to have thesame volume as one of the bottles 20, which are all of the samecapacity. Thus the valves '21.. being closed, the pipe B can easily holdthe exhaust gases resulting from the use of the contents of one of thebottles 20. When a bottle 20 is emptied the valve o of the said bottleis closed and the valve w being opened,

the contents of the pipe B fills the said bottle, after which the valve10 is closed, and the pipe B then becomes an exhaust gas receiver again.until the next bottle 20 is empty. If the pipe B has not sufficientcapacity an extra bottle S is attached thereto by a valve w, which iskept open while the first bottle 20 is being exhausted so that theexhaust gases are compressed in the bottle S until the firstbottle 20 isex hausted or until the bottle S is filled, when the valve w of thebottle S is closed and the valve on of the exhausted bottle is opened,its valve 4) being first closed. In the opera: tion of the engine thetwo sets of bottles are used simultaneously. On opening the valves 44,44 this air passes through the.v pipes 22, 22 to the spray injectors 28,23, 1,

and sprays the oil passing from the tanks 25, 25 through the pipes 24,24 into the engine cylinders, in the well known way. I

If desired, high pressure steam maybe used instead of the air forinjecting the oil, and this may be generated by the heat of the exhaust.

On opening the valves 43, 43, the compressed air passes through theheating coils 16, 16 where the air is heated by the exhaust gases, andthence into the air turbine 27, where it helps to drive the compressor28, and thence through the pipe 36 and valve 37 into the admissionreceiver of the engine, and thence into the engine cylinders in'the wellknown way, where it is compressed, burns the injected oil, expands andthen passes out of the exhaust ports into the exhaust receivers 15, 15,and thence through the pipes 18, 18 where after heating the air in thecoils 16, 16 it is itself cooled by the sea water circulating in thecoils 17, 17. Thence after this cooling, it

the gas turbine or combined 30 into the compressor 28 (its volume beingnow only approximately 97% of the orig inal volume, owing to the factthat exhaust gases occupy'lessvolume than the original air) and isrecompressed and passes into the pipe 13 and bottles 20, 20 as abovedescribed.

The cooling water for the coils 17, 17 is derived from the pipes 41, 41,passing through the sides 39, 39. ofthe vessel, and is circulated by thepumps 33, 33, and passes out again through the pipes 40, 40.

The power furnished by the air turbine 27 is not sutlicient to compressthe exhaust gases, by the electric motor 34 mos 13, 13 through the leads35, 35, etc.

This method is used when it is desired to run below the surface withoutshowing any part projecting above the water surface, or leaving any airbubble track or oil track.

When it is unnecessary to run without air bubble track, the valves 30,30 are closed and the valves 32, 32 opened. The engine then exhaustsoverboard through the fine copper pipes 42, 42, etc., passing throughthe side of the vessel. In this case 34 acts as a genera tor andsupplies power to the circuit 'to which itand the other dynamos 13, 13are connected.

passes by tl driven by the dyna- When it is unnecessary to run withoutany part projecting, the valve 37 may also be closed. and the air takeninto the admission receiver through the valve 38 which is opened for thepurpose, and which puts the admission receiver into communication withthe body of the ship. Air is admitted into the body of the ship in anyconvenient way, for example, as is well known in the art. through one ofthe periscope tubes or a separate tube emerging above the surface.

It is of course well known to operate sub marines by stored air, and theFulton and Nordenfeldt submarines were so operated. in the one case theair being furnished to the motive .power (human) and in the other caseto the motive power generator (steam boiler). It is also .well known tosupply it to burn fuel used in driving internal combustion engines, asfor example in torpedoes. where compressed air is used to burn alcoholwhich heats the air and, expanding it, drives gas andair turbinev whichturns the propellers.

But until the present invention this.

method had the following disadvantages which have prevented it fromcoming into use for submarines, or for enabling torpedoes to have thedesired long range and speed i. e.

1. It left a bubble track which disclosed the position of thesubmarine'and made much noise.

2. The weight per H. P. hour was too large. I

1e pipes 29 through the valves 30,

and the balance needed is furnished,

memes 3. The space per H. P. hour was too'large.

4. They could not be run at any considerable depth on acCOllnt of theback pressure of the water, and even at moderate depths were veryineilicient.

hile storage batteries have been practically universally used for underwater power, they have the following disadvantages, 2'. e.

-a. They are dangerous, the sulfuric acid ones from the generation ofchlorin, and the alkaline ones from the generation of hydrogen.

7). They deteriorated rapidly in use.

'0. The weight per H. P. hour was too great.

(Z. The space per H. P. hour was too great.

By applicants invention these defects are removed, 2'. e.

A. There is no back pressure when run ning submerged at any depth.

B. There is no bubble track.

The method is absolutely safe, and in addition prm 'idesa very largestorage capacity of air 01 accident, sutiicient to last D. The weightper H. P. hour is only a fraction of that of storage batteries.

E. The space per H. P. hour is only a fraction of that of storagebatteries.

F. The operation is more noiseless than that of storage batteries. asalternating current generators and motors may be used for driving thescrew propellers, and thu. all commutator noise eliminated.

The following figures show the comparati ve weights and volumes occupiedby appli cants apparatus as compared with those of the present storagebatteries.

In the tables, Method A is where applicant used compressed air; Method Bis where applicant used compressed oxygen, of approximately 95% purity,such as is readily obtained from "any oxygen plant without too muchtrouble, or by electrolysis. The figures are taken from a memorandumforwarded to the U. S. Navy Department in 1915, and so far as theyrelate to Navy apparatus have been checked by the Department.

Method A.

lbs.) 24. 4 0. ft This we 274 lbs. The 0 M r 57. 7117s The weight ofoilit will burn is At 0.4 lb. oil per H. P. hour this gives 42 The workdone by the air in e Total work is 62 H. P his Work lost in recompr 30H. P hrs N( available work 32 H. P hrs Weight of tanks. air and oil,total 1, 540 lbs. Weight per H. P. hour, Method A 50 lbs. Weight per H.P. hour, storage batteries (1 hour discharge rate. Navy standard) notincluding accessories 340 lbs. Volume per H. P. hour, Method A 0. 8 0.ft. Volume per H. P. hour, storage batteries (Navy standard rate, 1 hourdischarge,

not including battery accessories).. 1. 5 c. ft. Saving in weight byMethod A 85% Saving in space by Method A 45% bubble track is suppressed,

Method B.

Oxygen in tank weighs 280 lbs. Weight of 011 this will buru 82 lbs. Costof production of oxygen g2. 80 At 0.25 lb. per H. P. hour this g1ves 3 8H. P. hrs Work done by oxygen in expanding 20 H. P. hrs. Total work 348H. P hrs.

New work available, after subtracting 30 H. P. hours for recompressingexhaust wasgamma;1:111:11; Space per H. P. hour Saving in weight byMethod B Saving in space by Method B As applied to torpedoes, where abubble track is permitted, Method A gives three times the power, andMethod B sixteen times the ower. If the ethod A gives 50% more power,and Method B fifteen times the power.

'To prevent an oil track from forming from oil leaking out of thepropeller tube and risingto the surface, I use a lubricant formed of ametallic soap, as stearate of calcium or oleate of calcium or oleate oflead or a heavily chlorinated but neutral oil, so that on creeping outof the propeller tube'it will sink and not rise to the surface. InusingMethod B, e., oxygen storage, I prefer to use the exhaust gases todilute the oxygen in the cylinder. I may do this by mixing them beforepassing into the admission receiver, or by not scavenging per- 318 H. P.hrs.

5 lbs.

7 fectly, 'i. (3., only scavenging out about 20% of the exhaust gasesand adding to the 80% remaining in the cylinder about 20% of oxygen. Inthis way only about one fifth as much exhaust gas per H. P. hour has tobe recompressed as when air is used. 7

When exhausting overboard it is very advantageous to cool the exhaustgases first as shown, by the coils 17, 17, as in this way the backpressure is reduced and the volume diminished about 7 5%, and thus less.work is done in exhausting when running deep, though it is true that asa rule this is not important as when running deep it is generallydesired to have no bubble track.

While this invention has been described as applied to submarines inparticular, it is applicable to other purposes such as torpedoes andalso for railway o eration through long tunnels where the exhaust gaseswill foul the atmosphere of the tunnel. Moreover, so far as I know, therecompressing and storage of the used gases is new with me, and thenecessary apparatus therefor may be applied to other internal combustionengines than that described in my patent. I have shown the apparatus indiagrammatic form only in the drawings, as the elements are all old andwell known and need no elaboration to those skilled in the art. In

it will be seen that said engine and adapted to store gas at a pressuregreater than atmospheric pressure, means connected to said engine andconnectible to each of said tanks in turn whereby the exhaust gases maybe recompressed and stored in each of said tanks when it is empty, andmeans to cool said exhaust gases located between said engine and saidcompressing means.

3. An internal combustion engine comprising a tank to store gas underpressure greater than atmospheric pressure, means whereby fuel issupplied to said engine, connections .whereby said gas is also suppliedto said engine to furnish a means of combustion, and means operable bysaid engine to recompress the gaseous products of combusing one or moretanks adapted to store gas under pressure greater than atmosphericpressure, means comprising connections between each of said tanks inturn and said engine whereby gas is supplied to said engine andconnections between said engine and each of said tanks whereby theexhaust gases from said engine may be stored in each of said tanks whenempty including gas-compressing means located between said engine andsaid tanks.

5. An internal combustion engine, means comprislng a series of tanksconhected .with

the engine and adapted to store gas for use with said engine under apressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and an additional similartank normally empty, and

means connected to said engine and connectible to each of said tanks inturn whereby the exhaust ases may be recompressed and stored in saidfilled tanks when empty and in said normally empt tank before any one ofsaid gas-storage tan s becomes empty.

REGINALD A. FESSENDEN.

